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Design method for slender columns subjected

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 Magazine of Concrete Research, 2007, 59, No. 1, February, 319

Design method for slender columns subjected to

biaxial bending based on second-order
eccentricity
J. L. Bonet,* M. L. Romero,* M. A. Fernandez* and P. F. Miguel*

Technical University of Valencia

The present paper proposes a simplified method to design slender rectangular reinforced concrete columns with
doubly symmetric reinforcement. The proposal is based on the computation of the second-order eccentricity method
from the Eurocode 2 (December 2004). It is valid for columns subjected to combined axial loads and either uniaxial
or biaxial bending, short-time and sustained loads, and also for normal- and high-strength concretes. It is only
suitable for columns with equal effective buckling lengths in the two principal bending planes. It is an extension for
biaxial bending of the column-model method. The current paper is the second part of a research study conducted
by the current authors. The method was compared with 371 experimental tests from the literature and a high degree
of accuracy was obtained. Precision for sustained loads and biaxial bending was improved in comparison with the
method proposed by Eurocode 2 (December 2004). The method allows slender reinforced concrete columns to be
both checked and designed with sufficient accuracy for engineering practice.

Notation
Kj correction factor of the curvature for
b, h width and depth of the rectangular taking account of the long-term effects
section Kc correction factor of the curvature
deq equivalent effective depth l0 effective length of the column
d y, d z effective depth with respect to y- and M0Ed vector modulus of the first-order
z-axis respectively: d z h/2 + i sz ; d y bending moment of the column
b/2 + is y M0Ed y , M0Edz first-order bending moments of the
Es elastic modulus of the longitudinal column in the direction y and z
reinforcement respectively
eEd e0Ed + e2 ; vector modulus of the total M Ed vector modulus of the design bending
design eccentricity moment
e0Ed vector modulus of the first-order MEd y , MEdz design moment about y and z axes
eccentricity respectively
e0Ed y , e0Edz first-order eccentricity about y- and M0Eqp vector modulus of the first-order
z-axis respectively bending moment in the quasi-permanent
e2 second-order eccentricity load combination
hc critical dimension of the cross-section NEd design value of the axial load
is y , isz radii of gyration of the reinforcement
biaxial bending angle with respect to
with respect to y- and z-axis the strong axis
respectively
* relative biaxial bending angle with
respect to the strong axis
 interpolation function to obtain the
* Campus de Vera s/n. Technical University of Valencia. 46022 equivalent effective depth (deq )
Valencia. Spain.
cu2 (2.6 + 35 [(90
fck )/100]4 )/1000
(MCR 51410) Paper received 12 May 2005; revised 12 January 2006; < 0.0035 ultimate strain of the concrete
accepted for publication 12 May 2006. for bending and axial load
3

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Bonet et al.
yd fyd /Es strain correspondent with the
yielding stress of steel
g l0 /hc , geometric slenderness ratio of
the column
j creep coefficient
jef j(M0Eqp /M0Ed ) effective creep ratio
1/r nominal curvature
1/r0 base curvature
Introduction
The utilisation of high-strength concrete for civil and
building structures has become more common in recent
years. The use of such material allows the size of the
sections to be reduced while maintaining the same
strength capacity in comparison with normal-strength
columns (less than 50 MPa). This reduction produces
an increase in the slenderness that has to be considered
properly in the analysis.
The design of slender reinforced concrete columns is
difficult because the nonlinear behaviour of the materi-
als and the equilibrium of the structure in the deformed
shape (nonlinear geometry) must both be taken into
account.
General nonlinear methods of analysis with numeri-
cal approximations, as used by Mari,1 Wang and Hsu2
and Ahmad and Weerakoon3 are of no use for everyday
design because they require previous knowledge of cer-
tain data, which are initially unknown (such as the area
of the reinforcing bars), and also they are computation-
ally intensive since they require solving many coupled
nonlinear equations many times.4 A number of authors
are therefore interested in simplified methods.5,6
Most design codes suggest the utilisation of simpli-
fied methods that are helpful in the design process of
columns under uniaxial bending. However, the current
methods in the codes were developed for normal-
strength concretes. Generally, most European codes,
such as BAEL-91,7 BS 8110,8 EC-2,9 , MC-90,10 and
EHE,11 design the cross-section for a total eccentricity
(eEd ), obtained as the addition of the first-order eccen-
tricity (e0Ed ) and the second-order eccentricity (e2 ),
which takes into account the second-order effects. The
first-order eccentricity is equal to the ratio between the
first-order bending moment (M0Ed ) and the design value
of the axial load (NEd ).
The second-order eccentricity is proportional to the
nominal curvature (1/r) and the square of the effective
buckling length (l0 ) of the column. The nominal curva-
ture (1/r) depends on different factors such as the
cracking, the creep and the nonlinear behaviour of the
materials. Over the past 40 years, numerous proposals
have been put forward by different authors such as van
Laruwen and van Riel,12 Cranston,13 Beal and Khalil,5
and Westerberg.14 Most of them propose to calculate
the nominal curvature (1/r) as the product of a base
curvature (1/ro ) and a correction factor (Kc ), which
4 Magazine of Concrete Research, 2007, 59, No. 1
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depends on the forces on the column and the long-term
effects. For the draft of the Eurocode EC-215 and the
MC-9010 and for sections with symmetric reinforce-
ment concentrated at the top and the bottom, the base
curvature denotes the initial yielding state of the col-
umn critical section. It is equivalent to the state of
strains that produce the simultaneous yielding of the
compression and tension reinforcement bars of the sec-
tion. Nevertheless, for the French code BAEL-91,7
Cranston13 and the CEB,16 the base curvature denotes,
for the same type of sections, the strain state where
simultaneous yielding of the most highly tensioned
reinforced bar is produced and the concrete reaches the
ultimate strain (cu2 , for bending and axial load). Fol-
lowing this procedure, the current paper proposes a
technique to compute the second-order eccentricity (e2 )
that is valid for both normal- and high-strength con-
cretes.
Moreover, many reinforced concrete columns are
subjected to biaxial bending and axial loads as a result
of their position in the structure, the shape of the cross-
section or the source of the external loads. For those
cases, and for rectangular, circular or elliptical col-
umns, the draft of the EC-215 computes the second-
order eccentricity separately in each direction of the
principal axes and the design is performed using the
load contour method by Bresler.17



M Ed y a M Edz a
<1 (1)
M Rd y M Rdz
where MRd y , MRdz are the moment resistance in the
direction y and z axes, respectively; MEd y , MEdz are the
design moments that are applied in the critical cross-
section of the support, including a nominal second-
order moment; and a is the axial load contour expo-
nent. For circular or elliptical sections a 2, and for
rectangular sections:
(a) NEd /NRd : <0.1, 0.7, 1.0
(b) a 1.0, 1.5, 2.0
NEd is the design value of the axial load; NRd 0.85 .
fcd . Ac +As . fyd , design axial resistance of section; Ac ,
As are the gross area of the concrete sections and the
longitudinal reinforcement; and fcd , fyd represents the
design strength of concrete and steel.
According to Bonet et al.,18 this method can give
rise to unsafe situations for axial load levels close to
the ultimate axial load of the column if the most
important bending force corresponds to the direction of
the lower slenderness (bending with respect to the
strong axis). This problem is owing to the fact that the
load contour method does not take into account the
interaction that both curvatures produce in the structur-
al behaviour of the support.
Further, it is important to emphasise the fact that the
method from EC-215 needs previous knowledge of the
amount of reinforcement of the column, so that an
 Design method for slender columns

iterative process is required when the method is applied The proposed equation of the second-order eccentri-
to design the reinforcing bars. city e2 is applicable to a high percentage of rectangular
The method proposed in the current paper includes sections, with both short-term and sustained loads, and
the interaction that exists between both flexural axes in for normal- and high-strength concretes. The current
the structural behaviour of the column, and it is applic- paper is the second part of a research study conducted
able for both normal- and high-strength concretes. In by the present authors, Bonet et al.19
addition it is a direct method because it does not
depend on the value of the mechanical reinforcement
ratio.
The columns studied here are isolated elements with
Method
pinned ends subjected to constant axial load and biaxial The proposed method is based on the calculation of
bending valid both for short-term and sustained loads, the total design eccentricity (eEd ) obtained from the
(Fig. 1). Other effects such as different end restraints, addition of the vector modulus of the first-order eccen-
loading conditions and lateral supports are accounted tricity (e0 Ed ) and the second-order eccentricity (e2 )
for in the draft of the EC-215 through the use of the
eEd e0Ed e2 (2)
effective length factor (K) and the equivalent first-order
end moment (M0e ). where
q
e0Ed e20Ed y e20Edz
q
 2
Objectives
M 0Edz =NEd 2 M 0Ed y =NEd (3)
The present paper has two objectives. The first is to
propose a new equation to calculate the second-order M0Ed y , M0Edz are the first-order bending moments of
eccentricity (e2 ) of slender reinforced concrete columns the column (Fig. 1)
for single curvature. The second is to put forward a e2 is the second-order eccentricity
new simplified method, termed the second-order biax- 1 l20
ial eccentricity method, for designing slender columns e2 (4)
rc
with equal effective lengths in both directions that are
subjected to axial loads and biaxial bending, and which where c 10 for sinusoidal curvature distribution, as it
is based on the calculus of the second-order eccentri- is stated in the model-column method, and 1/r is nom-
city taking into account the interaction between both inal curvature
bending axes. This is an extension for biaxial bending In the sections that follow, the equation of (1/r) will
of the column-model method. be obtained from a numerical simulation and will later

z
NEd

y e0Edy Weak z
axis
e0Edz
MEd
MEdz

M0Edz
M0Edy 5 NEd e0Edz
l0
M0Ed Strong
y
M0Edz 5 NEd e0Edy h axis
M0Edy MEdy

z
y e0Edy

e0Edz
b

NEd

Fig.1. The proposed simplified method

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Bonet et al.

be compared with experimental tests from the litera-
ture.
The cross-section is designed for a factored axial
load (NEd ) and a total design bending moment (MEd )
obtained as a product between NEd and the total eccen-
tricity (eEd ). This bending moment will have the same
bending direction as the first-order bending moment
applied (Fig. 1).
M Ed N Ed  eEd
Numerical simulation
The equation of the nominal curvature (1/r) was
inferred from using a general method of structural
analysis for reinforced concrete using finite elements.
This numerical method includes the following main
issues.
(a) one-dimensional finite element with non-constant
curvature1
(b) nonlinear concrete behaviour10,20
(c) nonlinear steel behaviour: bilinear diagram10
(d) geometric nonlinearity: large displacements and
large deformations
(e) time-dependent effects: creep and shrinkage.16,21
A more thorough description of the model can be found
in Bonet et al.18
The foregoing numerical model was used here to
perform the analysis of the main variables that exert an
influence on nominal curvature (1/r).
Table 1 shows the parameters that were analysed and
their variation coefficients, which when combined pro-
duced 7600 numerical tests. The mechanical reinforce-
ment cover was fixed at 10% of the height and the
width of the section. This table is similar to that in
Bonet et al.19 but, in this case, the nominal curvature
(1/r) is the objective of the research.
For the particular case of rectangular sections with
reinforcement equal at the four faces, only one octant
(458) of the interaction surface has to be studied. For
this case, the following angles were selected (
): 08,
158, 308 and 458. On the other hand, for a general
rectangular section, 908 of the interaction surface need
(5) to be studied. For this case, the following angles were
selected: the boundary angles 08 and 908, the angle
corresponding to the load where relative bending mo-
ments are equal (M0Ed y /h M0Edz /b), and two inter-
mediate angle values.
Proposal of nominal curvature 1/r
Nominal curvature (1/r) of a column for axial loads
and uniaxial bending under short-term loads
The estimation of nominal curvature is obtained
through the following equation
1 1
Kc  (6)
r r0
where Kc is a correction factor of the curvature,
1/r0 represents base curvature (Fig. 2)
1 cu2 yd
(7)
r0 h=2 is
 yd is strain correspondent with the yielding stress of
steel ( fyd )
f yd
yd (8)
Es
Es is the elastic modulus of the longitudinal reinforce-
ment, h is the height of the section following the bend-
ing direction of the column, is is the radius of gyration

Table 1. Parameter variation

Parametric Values

Column geometric slenderness ( g ) g 10, 15, 20, 25, 30

Cross-section shape Rectangular
Heightwidth ratio (h/b) h/b 1, 1.5 and 2
Biaxial bending angle (
) with respect to the strong axis (Fig. 1) For h/b 1,
08, 158, 308 and 458
For h/b 1.5,
08, 178, 348, 628 and 908
For h/b 2,
08, 148, 278, 598 and 908
Reinforcement distribution Doubly symmetric at four corners
Doubly symmetric and uniformly distributed at four faces
Symmetric at opposite faces
Structural typology Isolated element with pinned ends
Axial load Ten values for equivalent steps, starting from a zero axial load to the
ultimate capacity for pure compression
Compressive concrete strength ( fc ) fc 30 MPa, 50 MPa and 80 MPa
Steel strength ( fy ) fy 400 MPa and 500 MPa
Mechanical reinforcement ratio ( ) 0.06, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75
Creep coefficient (j) j 1, 2, 3

6 Magazine of Concrete Research, 2007, 59, No. 1

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 Design method for slender columns
cu2
was selected from the proposal of the draft of EC-215
for any of the design stressstrain diagrams (parabola
h/2 rectangle, bilinear or equivalent stress block).
1
The curvature correction factor Kc was obtained by
h
1/r0 means of an equation that incorporated the relative
is eccentricity (e0Ed /h) and the geometric slenderness (g )
from the results of the numerical simulation. Thus, for
a particular axial force on the column NEd,i (Fig. 3), the
yd curvature correction factor Kc is obtained by perform-
ing sequentially the following steps.
Fig. 2. Base curvature 1/r0

(a) First, the second-order eccentricity is obtained

(M Ed,i )NS
(M 0Ed,i )NS
of the reinforcements with respect to the centroid of e2,i SN (10)
N Ed,i
the concrete cross-section (see Appendix 1), cu2 is the
ultimate strain of the concrete for bending and axial where (MEd,i )NS is the ultimate bending moment of
load, Art 3.1.7. EC-215 the cross-section for an axial force NEd,i computed
 4 from the numerical simulation (NS); (M0Ed,i )NS is
cu2 () 2:6 35 90
f ck =10 < 3:5 (9) the first-order ultimate bending moment of the
support for an axial load NEd,i computed from the
or from Table 2, and fck is the characteristic compres- numerical simulation (NS)
sive strength of concrete. (b) This second-order eccentricity allows the nominal
The base curvature (1/ro ) selected for the particular curvature of the section to be computed using
case where reinforcement is concentrated at the oppo- equation (4)
site faces of the section (Fig. 2) corresponds to the

1 10  e2,i NS
critical state by which the longitudinal reinforcement (11)
r NS l20
bar under tension yields (yd ) and the concrete reaches
the ultimate strain (cu2 ). (c) Finally, the curvature correction factor is obtained
It should be pointed out that the ultimate strain (cu2 ) by solving equation (6)

Table 2. Ultimate strain of concrete under axial load and bending

fck : MPa

12 16 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 70 80 90

cu2 () 3.5 3.1 2.9 2.7 2.6 2.6

NEd,i
M

(MEd,i )NS
Interaction diagram of the
cross section (g 5 0)

e0
lo

Interaction diagram of
(M0Ed,i )NS the column (g . 0)

N
NEd,i
NEd,i Nuc

Fig. 3. Interaction diagram between the support and the section

Magazine of Concrete Research, 2007, 59, No. 1 7

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Bonet et al.

1=rNS 12
Envelope curve
K c NS (12) used for the
1=r0 1
proposed method
08
where 1/r0 is the base curvature computed from equa-

tion (7).
As an example, Fig. 4 shows the curvature correction
factor (Kc )NS obtained through the numerical sim-
ulation, in terms of the first-order relative eccen-
tricity [e0Ed /h [(M0Ed,i ) NS /NEd,i )/h] and the geometric
slenderness (g lo /h), for a square column with equal
reinforcement at the four corners, a mechanical reinfor-
cement ratio () equal to 0.50 and a strength of the
concrete of 30 MPa.
The correction factor Kc depends on the relative
eccentricity e0Ed /h, as can be inferred from Fig. 4, and
its value concurs noticeably when the relative eccentri-
city is equal to 0.50 for any geometric slenderness (g ).
In this paper, this point is termed pivot correction
factor (Kcp ) and defines the border between two differ-
ent equations for Kc in terms of e0Ed /h: the first one
being parabolic (for e0Ed /h < 0.50) and the second one
is linear (for e0Ed /h . 0.50).
Although the correction factor Kc depends appreci-
ably on the mechanical reinforcement ratio (), the
proposed equation was formulated independently of this
parameter in order to simplify the application of the
method. The accuracy will be demonstrated later on in
this paper.
An upper envelope parabola (Fig. 5) was adjusted
from the results of the numerical simulation in order to
obtain the first equation of Kc (for e0Ed /h < 0.50). This
parabolic equation has an ordinate in the origin
Kc 0.5 and a value of Kc 1.05 for e0Ed /h 0.50.
Therefore, the equation of the parabola is
e0Ed =h < 0:50
K c
2:2 e0Ed =h
0:502 1:05
The next branch of Kc (for e0Ed /h . 0.50) was as-
sumed to be linear, crossing the point Kc 1.05 for
e0Ed /h 0.50 and having a slope that varies in terms of
25
Equal reinforcement at four corners
225
2
fc 5 30 MPa; 5 050 g 5 15
175
15
(Kc)NS
(Kc)NS
06
04
02
0
0 01 02 03 04 05
e0Ed/h
Fig. 5. Correction factor Kc for relative eccentricities lower
than 0.50
g . It was observed that the slope of the straight line
decreases if the geometrical slenderness increases.
Fitting the linear equation to the numerical simula-
tion results produces the following equation
e0Ed =h . 0:50
K c (1:15
g =30)  e0Ed =h
0:50 1:05 , 2:5 (14)
The value of Kc is stopped at 2.5 to prevent high
values of e0Ed /h from producing extremely high values
of this equation.
Nominal curvature (1/r) of a column for axial loads
and uniaxial bending under sustained loads
As is known, for the case of sustained loads, the
second-order effects are increased when the strain ow-
ing to creep grows. Hence, the nominal curvature of
the section is increased. For this reason, the nominal
curvature (1/r) obtained for short-term loads (equation
(6)) is augmented with a correction factor Kj in order
(13) to take into account the long-term effects.
1 1
Kj  Kc  (15)
r r0
Figure 6 presents the values of the total curvature
correction factor (Kj . Kc ) computed from the numer-
ical simulation as regards the relative eccentricity e0Ed /
g 5 10 h for three different creep coefficients j (0, 1 and 3)
and for three values of the geometric slenderness g
g 5 20 (10, 20 and 30). From this figure it can be inferred that
g 5 25 the values of Kc . Kj for j 1 and j 3 are appreci-
g 5 30

125 ably parallel to those obtained for j 0 (instantaneous

1 load) with a parallelism factor that is independent of
075 e0Ed /h. This factor is lower when the geometric slender-
05 ness (g ) increases. This behaviour indicates that as
025 slenderness grows, the second-order effects become in-
0 creasingly more dependent on the geometry of the sup-
0 025 05 075 1 125 15 175 2
e0Ed/h port itself (geometric nonlinearity) than on the lower or
higher deformability of the column owing to creep
Fig. 4. Curvature correction factor Kc for short-term loads (material nonlinearity).
8 Magazine of Concrete Research, 2007, 59, No. 1

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 Design method for slender columns
5 5

4 4

3 3
KjKc

KjKc
2 2

1 1
g 5 10 g 5 20

0 0
0 025 05 075 1 125 15 175 0 025 05 075 1 125 15 175
e0Ed/h e0Ed/h

5
Numerical simulation 5 3

Numerical simulation 5 1
4
Numerical simulation 5 0

Proposed method 5 3
3 Proposed method 5 1
KjKc

Proposed method 5 0

Reinforcement equally
distributed at the four faces
1 fc 5 30 MPa; 5 050
g 5 30

0
0 025 05 075 1 125 15 175
e0Ed/h

Fig. 6. Total nominal curvature correction factor Kc  Kj under sustained loads

The function of Kj is obtained as a least square
adjustment from the numerical results, such as
 
K j 1 5  j=g (16)
The parabolic branch of Kj .Kc could be improved by
taking into consideration the fact that the short-term
values of Kc are not perfectly parallel. The curvature of
the parabola increases with the creep coefficient j.
Thereby, equation (13) for calculating Kc was modified
to take this effect into account
e0Ed =h < 0:50
K c
2:2 j=3:75  e0Ed =h
0:502 1:05 (17)
For the linear branch of Kj .Kc the blocking value of
Kc for instantaneous loads needs to be a function of j
e0Ed =h . 0:50
K c (1:15
g =30)  e0Ed =h
0:50
1:05 , (2:5 0:8  j)
Magazine of Concrete Research, 2007, 59, No. 1
Also, the proposed total nominal curvature correc-
tion factor (Kj .Kc ) is presented in Fig. 6. In general the
proposal is slightly higher than the factor (Kj .Kc ) ob-
tained through the numerical simulation.
For the case where the permanent load applied to the
column is different to the total load, the creep coeffi-
cient (j) from equations (16) to (18) will be replaced
by the effective creep ratio (jef ).
This coefficient is obtained as the product between
the creep coefficient times the ratio between the first-
order bending moment in quasi-permanent load comb-
ination, SLS (M0Eqp ) and the first-order bending
moment in design load combination, ULS (M0Ed ).
M 0Eqp
jef j  (19)
M 0Ed
Nominal curvature (1/r) of a column subjected to axial
load and biaxial bending
It is important to note that if the support is subjected
(18) to axial loads and biaxial bending, the second-order
9

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Bonet et al.
eccentricity e2 (equation (4)) is performed in accor-
dance with the bending plane of the first-order eccen-
tricity (Fig. 1).
The equation of the nominal curvature for axial loads
and uniaxial bending was expanded for the biaxial case
1 1 cu2 yd
Kj  Kc  Kj  Kc 
r r0 d eq
where Kc is the curvature correction factor
e0Ed =hc < 0:50
K c
2:2 jef =3:75  e0Ed =hc
0:502 1:05
e0Ed =hc . 0:50
K c (1:15
g =30)  e0Ed =hc
0:50
1:05 , (2:5 0:8  jef )
Kj is the correction factor to take into consideration
the increment in the nominal curvature owing to the
creep deformation
 
K j 1 5  jef =g (22)
e0Ed is first-order eccentricity, equal to the ratio be-
tween the vector modulus of the first-order bending
moment (M0Ed ) and the factored axial load (NEd )
e0Ed M 0Ed =NEd
q (cr,weak ), the diagram ( 0Ed y , 0Edz ) adopts a concave
M 0Ed M 20Ed y M 20Edz
hc is critical dimension of the cross-section: the mini-
mum between the height and the width of the section,
min(b, h); g is the geometric slenderness of the col-
umn
g l0 =hc
and deq is the equivalent effective depth.
The equivalent effective depth of the cross-section is
linearly interpolated from the effective depths of the
section d y and d z with regard to the symmetry axes of
the section (Fig. 1).
d eq d z   d y  1

where
d z h=2 isz
d y b=2 is y
i sy , i sz are the radii of gyration of the reinforcements
with respect to the coordinate axes of the section (Fig.
1 and Appendix 1) and  is interpolation function.
In order to obtain an analytical equation to compute
the equivalent effective depth (deq ), the behaviour of a
support subjected to axial load and bending moment is
studied.
To clear the matter, Fig. 7(a) presents the dimension-
less interaction surface (taking into account the second-
order effects) of a rectangular column (h/b 2). The
10
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mechanical reinforcement ratio () is equal to 0.11 and
the concrete strength is 82 MPa. Fig. 7(b) displays the
dimensionless interaction diagram between the axial
load and the bending moment in the strong axis (Ed ,
0Ed y ). Fig. 7(c) shows the dimensionless interaction
diagram ( 0 Ed y , 0 Edz ) for three levels of relative axial
(20) load (Ed ).
It can be inferred from Figs 7(a) and (b) that if the
column is subjected to axial load and uniaxial bending
with respect to the strong axis, the critical axial load of
the support (cr ) is different if the deflection in the
weak axis is neglected or not. For the case, in which it
is neglected (braced column) the critical axial load
corresponds to the strong axis one (cr,strong ). On the
other hand, if the column is unbraced and it is sub-
(21) jected to axial load and uniaxial bending with respect
to the strong axis, the weak axis has a lot of influence
and the critical axial load corresponds to the weak axis
one (cr,weak ).
The reduction of the strength capacity of the column
owing to the influence of the weak axis is important for
axial loads close to the critical (cr,weak ). However, for
small levels of axial load, this reduction is insignificant
(Fig. 7(b)). This effect is higher as the applied axial load
(NEd ), the biaxial load level (
), the ratio height/width
(h/b) and the slenderness (l0 /hc ) increase. Besides, it is
worth noting that for axial loads close to the critical
(23) shape. In general, any of these effects are considered in
the simplified methods proposed by different authors,
producing states on the unsafe side. Therefore, studying
the performance of the column (Fig. 7), the interpolation
function (equation (25)) must fulfil two conditions.
The first is that the equivalent effective depth deq
(24) must tend towards the effective depth of the weak axis
(d y ) when the first-order relative eccentricity (e0Ed /hc )
is close to zero because the behaviour of the columns is
strongly affected by the weak axis in this type of forces.
In other words, if e0Ed /h c tends to be zero,  should be
0. The second condition is for case when the axial load
is zero NEd 0 (pure bending). If the eccentricity is
applied over the weak axis (z axis),  is equal to one
(25)
(deq d z ); and if the eccentricity is applied over the
strong axis (y axis),  is zero (deq d y ). The value of
 will be enclosed between the two values in any
intermediate case.
With these conditions, the interpolation function  is
obtained by the least square adjustment of the numer-
ical simulation results:
e0Ed =hc
 cos2
  (26)
e0Ed =hc 10
where
* is the relative biaxial bending moment angle
with respect to the strong axis


M 0Edz  h

 arctan (27)
M 0Ed y  b
Observe that if equation (25) is used for the cases of
Magazine of Concrete Research, 2007, 59, No. 1
 Design method for slender columns
cr 5 strong

Interaction diagram of the braced column in

1
uniaxial bending of the strong axis, when the
deflection in the weak axis is neglected

08

Interaction diagram of the unbraced column in

Ed 5 NEd/(Acfc)

cr 5 weak uniaxial bending of the strong axis, when the

06
deflection in the weak axis is not neglected
Ed 5 038
z
04

Ed 5 022 Column length (l0) 5 3 m

gy 5 l0/h 5 15; gz 5 l0/b 5 30

020 m
y
02 fc 5 82 MPa; fy 5 558 MPa

002 m
Ed 5 005

0 4 10
0 0 002 m
002 002 010 m
004
006 004
008
01 006
0Edy 5 M0Edy/(Acfch) 0Edz 5 M0Edz/(Acfch)
(a)

cr 5 strong 006
1
Braced column
005
08
Ed 5 005
0Edz 5 M0Ed/(Acfcb)

004
Ed 5 NEd/(Acfc)

06 Unbraced column
cr 5 weak 003

04
002
Ed 5 038 Ed 5 022
02
001

0 0
0 005 01 0 002 004 006 008 01
0Edy 5 M0Edy/(Acfch) 0Edy 5 M0Edy /(Acfch)
(b) (c)

Fig. 7. Structural behaviour of the support subject to axial load and biaxial bending. (a) Dimensionless interaction surface with
second-order effects. (b) Dimensionless interaction diagram (Ed , 0Edy ) of the column in uniaxial bending of the strong axis. (c)
Dimensionless interaction diagram ( 0Ed y , 0Edz ) of the unbraced column in biaxial bending

uniaxial bending, it should be noted whether or not the the first-order bending moment applied at the ends of
support has neglected the bending in the transversal the support.
plane. If this is case, the equivalent effective depth
(deq ) should be computed from the correspondent bend- M Ed NEd  eEd
(28)
ing plane (d y or d z ) and if it is not neglected equation eEd e0Ed e2
(25) will be valid.

where
e0Ed is the vector modulus of the first-order eccentri-
Proposal of the simplified method
city, e2 is the second-order eccentricity
If all the previous factors are considered, and based
on the parametric study, the design bending moment of 1 l20
e2  (29)
the column (MEd ) can be obtained as the product of the r 10
design axial load (NEd ) and the total design eccentricity
(eEd ). Such bending moment has the same direction as 1/r is the nominal curvature
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Bonet et al.

1 1 (b) For an unbraced column subjected to axial load

Kj  Kc  (30)
r r0 and uniaxial or biaxial bending moment
d eq d z   d y  1

1/r0 is the base curvature
1 cu2 yd hc min(h, b) (35)
(31)
r0 d eq where
Kc is the correction factor of the curvature e0Ed =hc
 cos 2
  (36)
e0Ed =hc < 0:50 e0Ed =hc 10


M 0Edz  h
K c
2:2 jef =3:75  e0Ed =hc
0:502 1:05
 arctan (37)
M 0Ed y  b
e0Ed =hc . 0:50
K c (1:15
g =30)  e0Ed =hc
0:50

1:05 , (2:5 0:8  jef ) (32)

Kj is the correction factor of the curvature for taking
into account the long-term effects
 
K j 1 5  jef =g (33)
The equivalent effective depth of the section (deq )
critical dimension of the cross-section (hc ) can be
obtained from the following equations.
(a) For a braced column subjected to axial load and
uniaxial bending moment with respect to the strong
axis
d eq h=2 is y
hc h
Verification of the proposed method
The simplifications that were adopted make it neces-
sary to analyse the accuracy obtained by using the
proposed equation with respect to 371 experimental
results from the literature. They are detailed in Table 3.
The experimental tests have pinnedpinned boundary
conditions. These included cases of both uniaxial and
biaxial bending moment with axial loads, but always
with a rectangular section and doubly symmetric rein-
forcement.
The accuracy of the proposed method is estimated
from the ratio between the ultimate axial load from the
proposed simplified method (Ns ) and the experimental
tests (Nt ) for the same first-order eccentricity applied at
(34) both ends.

Table 3. Verification of the proposed method by comparison with experimental tests

Short-term loads Sustained loads Total

No. m VC max mn No. m VC max mn No. m VC max mn

Sarker et al. 22 12 0.80 0.11 1.18 0.70 12 0.80 0.11 1.18 0.70
Kim and Lee 23 16 0.89 0.16 1.13 0.74 16 0.89 0.16 1.13 0.74
Claeson and Gylltoft 24 2 0.99 0.06 1.03 0.95 2 0.89 0.01 0.90 0.88 4 0.94 0.07 1.18 0.88
Claeson and Gylltoft 25 12 0.87 0.09 1.15 0.75 12 0.87 0.09 1.15 0.75
Foster and Attard 26 54 0.83 0.11 1.15 0.62 54 0.83 0.11 1.15 0.62
Lloyd and Rangan 27 36 0.93 0.11 1.15 0.72 36 0.93 0.11 1.15 0.72
Kim and Yang 28 30 0.91 0.09 1.08 0.79 30 0.91 0.09 1.08 0.79
Hsu et al. 29 7 0.73 0.10 1.00 0.64 7 0.73 0.10 1.00 0.64
Tsao and Hsu 30 6 0.88 0.11 1.01 0.76 6 0.88 0.11 1.01 0.76
Wang and Hsu 31 8 0.93 0.06 1.02 0.86 8 0.93 0.06 1.02 0.86
CEB 21 8 0.92 0.14 1.11 0.76 8 0.92 0.14 1.11 0.76
Mavichak and Furlong 32 9 0.97 0.11 1.09 0.81 9 0.97 0.11 1.09 0.81
Wu 33 11 0.78 0.06 0.89 0.71 11 0.78 0.06 0.89 0.71
Goyal and Jackson 34 26 0.99 0.13 1.18 0.76 20 0.96 0.13 1.14 0.69 46 0.98 0.13 1.18 0.69
Drysdale and Huggins 35 26 0.74 0.11 0.94 0.66 31 0.77 0.12 0.98 0.63 57 0.76 0.12 0.98 0.63
Breen and Ferguson 36 3 0.82 0.22 0.96 0.61 3 0.82 0.22 0.96 0.61
Green and Breen 37 2 1.03 0.03 1.05 1.01 2 1.03 0.03 1.05 1.01
Chang and Ferguson 38 6 0.75 0.15 1.18 0.61 6 0.75 0.15 1.18 0.61
Viest et al. 39 15 0.94 0.11 1.13 0.73 29 0.95 0.10 1.13 0.67 44 0.94 0.10 1.13 0.67
279 0.87 0.14 1.18 0.61 92 0.89 0.15 1.14 0.63 371 0.88 0.14 1.18 0.61

(*) The value of the variation coefficient is not representative owing to the small number of tests.
m : average ratio; VC.: variation coefficient; max : maximum ratio; mn : minimum ratio.

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 Design method for slender columns

Ns drawing a trend line in each graph. The selected vari-

 (38)
Nt
To calculate the ultimate bending moment of the
column cross section, the parabolarectangle defined in
the draft of EC-215 (Fig. 8) was selected.
The characteristic ( fck and fyk ) and design ( fcd and
fyd ) strengths of concrete and steel are taken as being
similar to those in the experimental tests ( fc and fy ),
respectively. Table 4 shows the variation of the para-
meters studied in the experiments.
Table 3 shows separate views of the accuracy
achieved with the proposed method for both short-term
loads and sustained loads. The mean of all the tests is
also included. The average ratio for short-time loads is
0.87 with a variation coefficient of 0.14, whereas for
sustained loads the ratio is 0.89 with a variation of
0.15.
Finally, for all the experiments, regardless of the
load, the average ratio was 0.88 with a variation coeffi-
cient of 0.14.
Figure 9 shows the variation of  (obtained for all
the cases) in terms of the most important parameters
ables were: compressive strength ( fc ), steel yielding
stress ( fy ), mechanical reinforcement ratio (), geo-
metric slenderness of the column (g ), relative axial
load ( Ed ), relative biaxial bending angle (
*), effective
creep ratio (jef ), and the auxiliary parameter , the
analytical expression of which is defined below
2q3
 2
M 0Ed y =h M 0Edz =b2 5

1 4
(rad) tan (39)
NEd
The parameter allows us to analyse the degree of
accuracy in terms of the relative eccentricity applied at
the section (e0Ed /hc ). It is delimited by equal to /2
when NEd 0 (pure bending) and equal to 0 when
the first-order relative eccentricity (e0Ed /hc ) is zero
(pure compression).
The trend lines of the graphs in Fig. 9 are horizontal
or with a slight slope (increasing or decreasing). This
means that the proposed method correctly detects the
variation of such parameters with a reasonable devia-
tion.
A comparison with the experimental tests in Table 3

c n
(a) For 0 < c < c2 c 5 085 fcd 1 2 12 c
c2

085 fcd
(b) For cu < c < cu2 c 5 085 fcd

where n 5 14 1 234 [(90 2 fck)]/100]4 < 20

c2() 5 20 1 0085 (fck 2 50)053 > 20
cu2() 5 26 1 35 [(90 2 fck)/100]4 < 35
c
c2 cu2

Fig. 8. Parabolarectangle diagram

Table 4. Parameter variation in the experimental tests

Parameter Range

Compressive concrete strength [ fc: ] 10.76107 MPa

Steel strength [ fy ] 298.55684 MPa
Mechanical reinforcement ratio [] 0.071.42
Volumetric reinforcement ratio [rg ] 0.010.05
Type of section Rectangular or square
Reinforcement distribution Doubly symmetric
Column geometric slenderness [g ] 340
Height/width ratio [h/b] 12
Relative axial load [Ed ] 0.041.20
Relative eccentricity [] 0.051.05
Relative biaxial angle [
*] 0908
Creep coefficient [j] 0.323.29
Efficient creep ratio [jef ] 0.322.83
Ratio between the first-order bending moment in quasi-permanent load combination (M0Eqp ) and the first-order 0.421.00

M 0Eqp
bending moment in design load combination, ULS (M0Ed ):
M 0Ed

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Bonet et al.
14 14
13 13
12 12
11 11
1 1

09 09
08 08
07 07
06 06
05 05
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
fc: MPa fy: MPa
(a) (b)
14 14
13 13
12 12
11 11
1 1

09 09
08 08
07 07
06 06
05 05
0 02 04 06 08 1 12 14 0 10 20 30 40
5 (Asfy)/(bhfc) g
(c) (d)
14 14
13 13
12 12
11 11
1 1

09 09
08 08
07 07
06 06
05
05
0 02 04 06 08 1 12 0 02 04 06 08 1 12
Ed 5 NEd/(bhfc) (rad) 5 [tan21([M0Edy/h)2 1 (M0Edz/b)2]05/NEd)]
(e) (f)
14 14
13 13
12 12
11 11
1 1

09 09
08 08
07 07
06 06
05 05
0 15 30 45 60 75 90 0 05 1 15 2 25 3
*() 5 arctan[(M0Edzh)/(M0Edyb)] jef
(g) (h)

Fig. 9. Comparison of the proposed method with the experimental results in terms of: (a) concrete trength; (b) steel strength; (c)
reinforcement ratio; (d) slenderness; (e) relative axial load; ( f) bending moment angle; (g) relative biaxial bending moment; (h)
effective creep ratio

applying the method of the draft EC-215 was carried supports are subjected to axial load and uniaxial bend-
out to evaluate the degree of accuracy reached with the ing is
proposed method.
The function of the second-order eccentricity pro-
1 l20 1 l2
posed by the draft of EC-215 for the case where the e2  Kr  Kj   0 (40)
r c r0 c
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 Design method for slender columns

where Kr is the correction factor, which depends on the If the column is subjected to biaxial bending and
axial level axial loads, the method described by equation (1) is
nu
n applied. For the computation of the ultimate bending
Kr <1 (41) moments of the section, the parabolarectangle diagram
nu
nbal
defined by EC-215 (Fig. 8) is applied. It is identical
n is the relative axial load [NEd /(Ac  fcd )], NEd is the with the one considered in the verification of the meth-
design axial load of the support, Ac is the area of od proposed in the current paper.
concrete cross section, fcd is the design strength of con- Table 5 presents a comparison between the results
crete, nu is the ultimate relative axial load of the sec- obtained by applying the proposed method and the one
tion under pure compression [Nuc /(Ac  fcd )] (Fig. 3), from EC-215 with respect to experimental results.
nbal is the value of n at maximum moment resistance, In general, the proposed method achieves an average
Kj is the correction factor, which takes into account ratio closer to one on the safe side, with a lower devia-
the creep effect tion coefficient. It is important to notice that the pro-
posed method presents an essential improvement for
K j 1
 jef > 1 (42)
sustained loads, both for uniaxial and biaxial bending,
being and also for short-term loads and biaxial bending.
Only for the case of uniaxial bending and short-term

0:35 f ck =200
=150 loads does the method from EC-215 present similar
results to those obtained by the proposed method.
fck is the characteristic strength of concrete (in MPa),
is the mechanical slenderness of the support
l0 =i (43)

i is the radius of gyration of the gross section, 1/r0 is Example

the base curvature
1=r0 yd =0:45  d
where yd f yd =Es , fyd is the design yielding stress of
reinforcement, Es is the elastic modulus of the reinfor-
cing bars and d is the effective depth. If all reinforce-
ment is not concentrated on opposite sides, but part of
it is distributed parallel to the plane of bending, d is
defined as
d h=2 is
where h is the height of the section (parallel to the
bending plane), is is the radius of gyration of the
reinforcing bars, c is a factor that takes into considera-
tion the curvature distribution along the column. For a
sinusoidal curvature distribution, a value of 10 (2 ) is
adopted.
In order to illustrate the practical application of the
(44) proposed method, the longitudinal reinforcement of an
unbraced column is calculated. The column has a buck-
ling length of 4 m and it is subjected to constant forces
along the length of the element corresponding to the
ultimate limit state for the permanent or variable state.
These are NEd 2300 kN, M0Ed y 60 kN m and
M0Edz 45 kN m. The cross section is presented in
Fig. 10. The mechanical properties of the materials are
(45) fck 80 MPa and fyk 500 MPa and Es 200 000
MPa with a normal level of quality control. The effec-
tive creep ratio (jef ) is equal to 1.2.
The size of the reinforcement is obtained by follow-
ing the steps explained in previous sections using the
basic hypothesis from EC-215 to compute the ultimate
bending moments.
Initially, the following parameters are computed

Table 5. Comparison of the obtained results from the proposed method and EC-2 with experimental results; classified by the
type of external load

Type of external Type of time Method No: of tests m VC min max

force load

Uniaxial bending Short-term Proposed 194 0.90 0.13 0.61 1.18

EC2 (2004) 0.95 0.15 0.61 1.29
Sustained Proposed 65 0.94 0.12 0.67 1.14
EC2 (2004) 1.11 0.17 0.59 1.62
Biaxial bending Short-term Proposed 85 0.82 0.15 0.64 1.13
EC2 (2004) 0.67 0.24 0.40 0.98
Sustained Proposed 27 (*) 0.75 0.11 0.63 0.91
EC2 (2004) 0.67 0.14 0.54 0.85
Total Proposed 371 0.88 0.14 0.61 1.18
EC2 (2004) 0.89 0.25 0.40 1.62

(*) All the tests are from the same authors (Drysdale and Huggins 35 ).
m : average ratio; VC: variation coefficient; max : maximum ratio; mn : min ratio.

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Bonet et al.
z s
d
d9 4  n z  (n z 2)
isz  1

2 3  (n z 1)  (4 2  n y 2  n z )
s
0:35
0:05 4  3  (3 2)
 1

y 2 3  (3 1)  (4 2  1 2  3)
040
0:11456 m
s
0:20
0:05 4  1  (1 2)
005 is y  1

2 3  (1 1)  (4 2  3 2  1)
005
0:06846 m
025 12? In metres
(e) Relative biaxial bending moment
* (equation
Fig. 10. Example cross section of the support
(37))



 M 0Edz  h 45 3 0:40

tan
1
tan
1
50:19
M 0Ed y  b 60 3 0:25
f cd f ck =c 80=1:5 53:3 MPa
( f ) Interpolation coefficient  (equation (36))
f yd f yk =s 500=1:15 434:78 MPa e0Ed =hc
 cos 2
 
hc min(h, b) min(0:25, 0:40) 0:25 m e0Ed =hc 10
0:1304
g l0 =hc 4=0:25 16 cos 2 50:19  : 0:00527
0 1304 10
yd f yd =Es 434:78=200 000 0:00217 (g) The equivalent effective depth is computed from
 4 the following equation (equation (35))
cu2 () 2:6 35  90
f ck =10
 4 d eq d z   d y  1

2:6 35  90
80=10 2:6 , 3:5
(0:3146) (0:0527) 0:1935 (1
0:0527)

The second-order eccentricity is obtained using equa- 0:1941 m

tion (29). Previously, the following computations need
where
to be performed.

(a) First-order relative eccentricity (e0Ed /hc ) d z h=2 isz 0:40=2 0:11456 0:3146 m

M 0Edz 45 d y b=2 is y 0:25=2 0:06846 0:1935 m

e0Ed y 0:0195 m
Nd 2300
(h) The nominal curvature (equation (30)) adopts this
M 0Ed y 60 value
e0Edz 0:026 m
Nd 2300
q 1 cu2 yd
Kj  Kc 
e0Ed =hc e20Ed y e20Edz =hc 0:0326=0:25 0:1304 r d eq

(b) Correction factor Kc (equation (32)) for e0 Ed /hc < 0:00217 0:0026
(0:793) (1:375) 0:02684 m
1
0 .5 0:1941
K c
2:2 jef =3:75  e0Ed =hc
0:502 1:05 (i) The second-order eccentricity (equation (29)) is
1 l2 42

2:2 1:2=3:75  0:1304
0:50
2 e2  0 0:02684  0:0435 m
r 10 10
1:05 0:793 ( j) Finally, the total design eccentricity (equation (28))
is equal to
(c) Correction factor Kj owing to sustained loads
(equation (33)) eEd e0Ed e2 0:0326 0:0435 0:0761 m
  being
K j 1 5  jef =g 1 5(1:2=16 1:375
q
(d) Radii of gyration of the reinforcements with re- e0Ed e20Ed y e20Edz 0:0326 m
spect to the coordinate axes of the section (Appen-
dix 1). The vector modulus of the total design bending mo-
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 Design method for slender columns

ment (MEd ), according to the first-order bending mo- doubly symmetric reinforcement subjected to combined
ment plane
with regard to the strong axis (equation axial loads and uniaxial bending.
(28)), is The proposed formulation for biaxial bending is an
M Ed NEd  eEd 2300 3 0:0761 175:07 kN m extension of the general nominal curvature (1/r) equa-
tion for uniaxial bending obtained by calculating the
where equivalent effective depth of the column cross section.


 This formulation includes the existing interaction be-
M 0Edz 45

tan
1
tan
1
36:878 tween both flexure axes and the particular case of the
M 0Ed y 60 axial load and single curvature. The effect of braced
structures is taken into account in the behaviour of the
Consequently, the design forces are column subjected to an axial load and uniaxial bending
with respect to the strong axis.
NEd 2300 kN; M Ed y 140:06 kN m;
The method was compared with 371 experimental
M Edz 105:04 kN m tests and it proved to be accurate enough for its practi-
cal application.
From these forces, the longitudinal reinforcement that The accuracy of the proposed method was compared
is needed is calculated in accordance with the distribu- with the equations proposed by EC-2,15 and a notice-
tion indicated in Fig. 10. By so doing, the required area able improvement was accomplished. It is important to
of reinforcement is found to be equal to 22.54 cm2 (12 highlight that this improvement is more relevant for
bars with diameter  16 mm). sustained loads and biaxial bending. The draft of EC-2
has a different method for uniaxial bending than for
biaxial bending, while the proposed method has a uni-
fied formulation.
Conclusions
Unlike other simplified methods (i.e. EC-2), the pro-
The present paper proposes a simplified method for posed method can be directly applied to design pur-
designing slender rectangular reinforced concrete col- poses because it does not require any iterative process,
umns with doubly symmetric reinforcement subjected since it is independent of the mechanical reinforcement
to combined axial loads and biaxial bending that is ratio.
valid for short-time and sustained loads, and for both
normal- and high-strength concretes. The method is
only valid for columns with equal effective buckling
Acknowledgements
lengths in the two principal bending planes. It is an
extension for biaxial bending of the column-model The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to
method. the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologa for help
A new equation is presented to obtain the nominal provided through project MAT2002-02461, and also to
curvature (1/r) of the critical section of columns with the Ministerio de Fomento (BOE 13/12/2002).

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Bonet et al.

Appendix 1. Radii of gyration

The equations of the radius of gyration with respect to the horizontal axis of the most common cases are presented in the table
below.

Reinforcement distribution Radius of gyration(is )

Equal at opposite faces

(d
d9)
A
2
dd

(d
d9)
p
dd 12
A A

Equal at the four faces

A (d
d9)
p
A A dd 16
A

Uniformly distributed

A b r
3  b9 h9
h (d
d9) 
A A h 5 dd 12  (b9 h9)
A b
h

s
(d
d9) 4  n z  (n z 2)
Doubly symmetric (*)  1

2 3  (n z 1)  (4 2  n y 2  n z )
ny
where
nz dd
n y , n z number of bars at the faces of the section

s
Asy Ase (d
d9) 4  n z  z  (n z 2)
General. Doubly symmetric  1

2 3  (n z 1)

ny where
dd n y , n z number of bars at the faces of the section
nz
Asz z As y /As
As 4  Ase + 2  n y  As y + 2  n z  Asz
Ase, As y , Asz represent area of one of the bars located at the corners
or at the faces of the section

(*) The obtained expression assumes that all the bars have the same diameter.

References
1. Mari A. R. Nonlinear Geometric, Material and Time Dependent
Analysis of Three Dimensional Reinforced and Prestressed Con-
crete Frames. Department of Civil Engineering, University of
California, Berkeley, California, USA, June 1984. Report No.
USB/SESM-84/12.
2. Wang G. and Hsu C. T. T. Complete Load-Deformation Behav-
iour of Biaxially Loaded Reinforced Concrete Columns. Techni-
cal Report Structural Series No. 902, Department of Civil and
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